Huey D. Johnson (I was uncredited editor and co-author)
In 1997, RRI was awarded a grant from the Greater New Orleans Foundation to assess the willingness and readiness of the region for developing a green plan. This article is reprinted from the first Sustain newsletter of RRI's green plan program in New Orleans, LA.
New Orleans is a region of national and world importance - a magnificent place with an important heritage, both cultural and environmental. Like so many places in the world, the environmental problems have accumulated and warrant a serious challenge.
At the Resource Renewal Institute (RRI), we see an important comparison between the New Orleans situation and that of the Netherlands. Both are at the end of a great world river, with global industrial and agricultural complexes upriver bringing pollutants downstream. Both have world ports, large areas of land below sea level, and massive water management systems.
In the 1980s, the waters of the Rhine were dangerously polluted. The Dutch undertook a national program - the National Environmental Policy Plan - and one of the goals of this green plan was to have salmon return to the Rhine. Today, a decade into their 25-year plan for total environmental recovery, they have healthy salmon back in the Rhine. At the same time, the Dutch are increasing the size of Rotterdam harbor, which is already the largest port in Europe.
I would argue that we currently have a similar situation in the American heartland. The Mississippi river drains the agricultural chemicals from 40% of the U.S. land area - cornfields, cattle ranches, pig farms - as well as the sewage from large cities along its banks. Some say that they have absolutely every right to dump waste and chemicals into the river. One U.S. senator recently stated that we cannot restrict corn farmers from putting whatever they want to on their land. State boundaries border the Mississippi, so whatever each state puts into the river becomes the problem of states downstream. So we would say that one needs to look upriver when approaching the environmental problems of New Orleans and Louisiana.
Going upriver helps us to focus on the big picture. The big picture also includes looking at broader changes in industry and business as a whole, as they increasingly become leaders in the environmental agenda. Today, in our modern age, the only thing that is certain is change. In the Netherlands, the Dutch chemical industry is a world leader in emissions reduction, a radical change from their stonewalling of government regulation just twenty years ago.
European industry is leading the way in initiatives such as the curbing of global warming. John Browne, the CEO of British Petroleum, broke ranks last year when he said that global warming is real and that the oil industry must become part of the solution - no longer a part of the problem. John Browne is only one example of how industry is shifting toward an agenda of sustainability. Shell has more recently made a similar shift in perspective.
By focusing on the big picture and building a new form of institution, involving leaders from all different sectors in New Orleans, there is real promise to solve the problems faced. Only when there is a shared vision of the big picture, can people operate at policy and principle level, foregoing the bickering, law-suit ridden details.
We are not saying that the problems in New Orleans can be avoided. The U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Anan, recently pointed to Cancer Alley as a global hotspot for environmental problems and human rights issues. In June, Time magazine highlighted the summer growth of the Dead Zone, overloaded with fertilizer nutrients, off the coast of Louisiana.
We see the crisis being faced not as a problem, but as an opportunity. Like an alcoholic who has reached a point where he realizes there is no alternative but to turn around to recovery, in the Greater New Orleans region there is a growing awareness that the problems are real and there is a need for action now. This is an important opportunity to develop a regional vision, a regional plan.
What is needed in Greater New Orleans and the state of Louisiana is no less than a shared vision of total environmental recovery. To commence this vision-building process, we recommend the establishment of a regional coalition drawing together people from across the societal sectors. Involving people from tourism, from fishing, from the chemical industry, from farming and other industries. People from the many cities and parishes in the region. People from right across the community. We need to look toward building a southeast Louisiana coalition, which will work together to find a common ground, and will then be able to send a message of environmental recovery to the state government and to business centers across the U.S. and around the world.
http://www.rri.org/newsletters/newswin98/recovery.html